Thank you for your help so far. And a few final questions before I send the translation on Monday

1) Is papervine a real plant or another invention by the author?
2) When Cookie was describing the "coffin" harpooner, he said: "Had more tattoos than the Edinburgh festival" What did he mean?
3) Before his fight with the Nation chief, Cox complained: "You wouldn't find the Brigade of Guards coming over all treasonable like this, my word, no!"

Jirzinek is attempting to translate Nation into Polish - hence the questions.

1. Papervine may or may not be a real plant we just don't know. The people on the island have obviously named it that because it reminds them of paper and it's a vine. I don't think papervine is any sort of actual botanical name.

2. Tattoo here is a play on words. We all know what tattoos are - skin markings made with ink, but every year there is something called
The Edinburgh Military Tattoo; which is a huge display of military marching and training etc. It's the biggest such show in Britain.

3. Not sure quite what you're looking for with number 3. The Brigade of Guards is a group of several regiments in Britain whose traditional role is to protect the King or Queen. They are also (supposedly) the biggest and toughest and most disciplined soldiers and the least likely to run away on a battlefield. They do as they are told and therefore are unlikely to commit treason.

Thank you Tony! I wasn't sure whether "papervine" was a colloquial name for a plant that a Native Speaker would recognize at once, hence my question.

Thanks for the Tattoo link but as I was reading about it, I found the whole thing started in 1950, so Cookie couldn't possible have had that in mind, could he?

As for the Brigade of Guards, sorry for not explaining what I meant - Well, it seemed strange to me that Cox used the word "treasonable" referring to them exactly because you wouldn't normally associate the Brigade of Guards with treason... It's page 339 in my edition.1

You have to remember that Nation is set on a sort of alternative Earth (down a different leg of the Trousers of Time) and it's not a history book. The British Royal Family did NOT actually get wiped out by a flu epidemic. So Terry is using things like the Edinburgh Tattoo, even if it hadn't been invented then. It's just to fit the joke.

Yes..... good luck in translation, some of the ideas and jokes may not convert well into other languages because it is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of the English culture and Language.. this is sometimes true of other of Terry Pratchett books.

The one that springs to My mind is Men At Arms and the Gonne.

Gonne ,gone and Gun sound very much the same and are used as a pun and in word play in that book.

jirzinek wrote:That's the one. Can you read the text of that invitation? The letters are smudged, aren't they?

Not so much smudged as unimportant. It's a standard party invitation that Daphne has adapted. As far as I can make out it says:

Government House, Port Mercia (crossed through)The Wreck of the Sweet Judy (hand written)To.............Request the pleasure of your companyto join us for celebratinga party to commemorate the *something unreadable* of

I can't thank you enough... I wonder how the publisher is going to deal with "something unreadable"

I'm just putting the finishing touches to the final pages. The text will be sent tomorrow and then it will come back to me after all the editorial corrections. Perhaps I will bother you with a few more questions then. I must say I didn't expect such cooperative spirit here. The Pratchettians are really lovely people.